Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood) and his cohorts, Bill “Hawk” Hawkins, Tank Sullivan (James Garner), and engineer Jerry O’Neil (Donald Sutherland) were all similar to Chuck Yeager. They were fearless in the sky and their dream was to be America’s first astronauts. Unfortunately, the Air Force was pushed out of the outer space business when a civilian agency, NASA, was formed in 1958. Corvin and his gang believed that their stuffed shirt commander, Col. Bob Gerson (James Cromwell), did all in his power to prevent them from joining NASA. Corvin eventually went on to become a communications satellite engineer.

42 years later, a Russian satellite is falling out of orbit and heading to earth. Normally, that wouldn’t be so dramatic since it’s assumed that most of the satellite will burn up upon entering the earth’s atmosphere. For reasons that are not immediately explained, the Russians want the satellite to be repaired as quickly as possible are counting on NASA’s help. The joke is that the engineering design on that satellite is so old that none of NASA’s computer gurus knows how to fix it. As only happens in the movies, there is only one man who can do the job: Dr. Frank Corvin.

Corvin turns down a NASA team who have been dispatched to his home in Southern California once he learns that his old nemesis, Bob Gerson, is in charge of this project; however, Corgin changes his mind when the NASA contingent plays upon his sense of patriotism. Corvin agrees to do the job but only if he can gather his old team together and that they can finally become the astronauts they always dreamed of being.

The first hour of the film is delightful as we see Eastwood doing what he does best, namely challenging authority. His one-on-one scenes with James Cromwell, who is one of the best actors at playing by-the-book stuffy bureaucratic managers, is what has made Eastwood a film icon. It is also fun to watch Corvin’s love-hate relationship with the true flying cowboy of the bunch, the go-for-broke Hawk Hawkins. You almost get the feeling that Clint Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones are improvising as they go along. Watching Eastwood, Jones, Garner, and Sutherland, along with William Devane as a wisecracking, gum-chewing NASA flight director, is watching acting at its best.

Unfortunately, the second half of the movie becomes another in a long line of “How can we save the earth from being destroyed by an evil enemy in outer space?” films. The pacing drags badly, and we are even cheated out of a final showdown scene between Eastwood and Cromwell.

It is too bad that “Space Cowboys” starts out so promising but ultimately winds up being “The Wrong Stuff.”